


Of coffee, salt and pastries

by UndeadFae



Category: Inazuma Eleven
Genre: Coffee Shops, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Implied Relationship, M/M, Not Beta Read, Romantic Fluff, Slice of Life, coffee shop AU, fudou is mentioned, like very strongly implied. they are very gay ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23357350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadFae/pseuds/UndeadFae
Summary: Retail work was far from ideal for Sakuma, even if it was just a coffee shop testing his patience and impulse control on the daily. Lucky him, Genda is there to help.
Relationships: Genda Koujirou/Sakuma Jirou
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	Of coffee, salt and pastries

**Author's Note:**

> I FINISHED IT. I HAD BEEN WORKING ON IT FOR AGES AND IT IS DONE NOW.  
> Will I ever write a sequel for it who knows? Not me

Like many other college students, Sakuma had started looking for a part time job as soon as the semester started. Sure, his patience might be far too nonexistent to deal that well with anything about customers, but hey, an income is an income, and it was particularly appreciated while you couldn't live off your high paying dream job just yet.

On the bright side, the job he landed, while not exactly the best, wasn't anything to sneer at either. The coffee shop was one of those odd places that surprisingly managed to stay on business despite being always short staffed and looking for new employees, small and quiet most of the times, and a few less pleasant customers aside, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, even squeezing in some much needed time for homework during breaks and slow hours.

Of course, the peace only lasted until Fudou of all the people found out where he worked. Sakuma could feel a bit more of his soul die and descend to the hell where it belonged whenever he saw that stupid grin in the shop, coincidentally managing to be there nearly every day on his work hours. How he hadn't gotten fired yet after a few of those unspeakable incidents, Sakuma still wasn't sure. Maybe the shop was really that short staffed, or they just were too tired to care about the weird spite contest going on.

On the bright side, once Genda had found out of his new job –faster than Fudou, lucky him and his ever ending patience-, he quickly made sure of becoming a regular at the shop, always coming in during Sakuma's hours whenever his schedule allowed it.

Work was, to be completely honest, awful and sapping all his will to live. Having Genda there helped more than he ever expected it to.

* * *

"So, how is it going?" It was more out of courtesy than anything else. He just saw Fudou walk out of the shop with his stupid smug smirk, Genda knew exactly what happened. The way Sakuma was aggressively cleaning what looked like spilled coffee and whipped cream already confirmed his suspicions before he even asked. The stains on his clothes of dubious origin, his disheveled hair and 'I definitely want to strangle someone' grunt just supported his ideas.

Without adding another word, Genda just took the cleaning supplies out of a very confused and mildly irritated Sakuma's hands.

"Let me help you."

"Wait- but-"

"It'll be faster this way, right? Besides you have more work to do." Sakuma just grumbled what vaguely sounded like a yes, moving to take the orders of the customers just now walking in. He refused to admit how much it warmed his heart and made him smile to just know he cared enough to help.

* * *

The day had been more stressful than usual, a sudden influx of customers for some reason that Sakuma didn’t care enough to figure out, too busy with orders to take and make to care. Curse their understaffed store. The busy looking shop didn’t stop Genda from coming in as usual, even if he had to wait a good ten to fifteen minutes to get a seat by the counter. His order could wait for now, refusing to add more stress to Sakuma’s already heavy workload.

In the few free minutes he had, Sakuma allowed himself to breathe, quickly walking up to Genda and silently hoping no one would be coming in any time soon.

“So, what do you want today?”

“Other than seeing you? Two croissants and the usual coffee would be a great extra.” And of course he was grinning like an idiot when Sakuma heard that and spluttered in answer. He just hurried to prepare his order, making sure of giving him two pastries of the batch fresh out of the oven while he prepared the coffee.

“Here- now you can be quiet.” His words lacked his usual bite. Genda had been successful in his attempt at flustering him, damn that idiot. Before he could turn back to the coffee machine and check back on his work, Genda reached out to grab his hand. “What?”

“Here- you need it.” And with that, Genda pushed the plate towards him, with one less croissant in it, the remaining one now decorated with a heart of chocolate syrup. Sakuma could feel his face nearly burning at the sight, his warm smile only making things worse for him- why did he have to be so kind? He couldn’t handle it- it wasn’t fair. At all.

With a mumbled thanks, Sakuma took the warm croissant, taking a bite while he still had time to do so. Genda had taken the time to fill it up with more syrup. It tasted sweeter than he expected.

* * *

"... Genda? Are... are you ok?" He looked, to put it bluntly, like shit, disheveled hair pulled back in a hasty ponytail, sipping a cold espresso and definitely dead inside.

"Deadline." Going by the way it took him a few seconds to realize his cup was empty and awkwardly put it down, only to almost slip and let it fall to the floor, he definitely wasn't sleeping that well either.

Sakuma quietly slipped him a fresh cup.

* * *

It was raining- scratch that, it was pouring, loud thunders interrupting the fairly quiet droplets of water hitting the shop window, lightning nearly splitting the clouds apart. And of course Sakuma was stuck with the closing shift in a weather like this, just what he expected from his awful luck.

With the last few customers hurrying to finish their pastries and coffees to leave, it was a good time as any to start cleaning up and taking care of the other chores before finally closing- and figuring out a way to get back home without getting completely soaked and dying of pneumonia or something like that.

When the door opened again, Sakuma nearly cursed out loud seeing someone walk in- and then Genda pulled down his hood, trying to shake the water off his umbrella at the door and leaving as much of it outside as possible. Then he walked up to the counter. Sakuma raised an eyebrow, going back to cleaning the counter.

“You do know we’re closing soon, right?” Genda nodded.

“Don’t worry- I’m here for you!” He stopped for a moment to look up from an obnoxious dried stain, skepticism written all over his face.

“… What?”

“You heard me- I wasn’t going to leave you to go back in the rain all alone!” Sakuma blinked, to then force himself to look back at the stain he was in the middle of battling.

“You didn’t have to do that… besides, it’ll take a while to close everything here.”

“Well, I’m already here now, so I might as well wait, right?” Like that wasn’t just a poor attempt at an excuse to just wait there for him. Sakuma huffed, knowing how he just wouldn’t change his mind now.

“Fine… you win, you ass.” Genda didn’t stop smiling, warm and bright, the gloomy weather suddenly not so terrible.

Even if they did get wet in their attempts at sharing a lone umbrella, Sakuma didn’t care, clinging to Genda’s arm all the way back. He couldn’t have been more grateful to have him there.

* * *

When Sakuma walked into the shop that day to find Genda already there, he froze, his brain completely coming to a halt for a few seconds. It was one thing to see him there early in the morning for some much needed caffeine, but it was another thing entirely to see him behind the counter and taking the customers' orders.

As he stepped behind the counter and reached for his apron, he could confirm that this was indeed Genda standing there in his workplace’s uniform, asking a girl about her order with that stupidly charming smile of his that Sakuma would never admit was making him internally swoon and scream all at once. Nope, not happening, nothing was wrong there. And Genda just happily waved at him as soon as he spotted him, his grin somehow looking even brighter than usual. Sakuma had to turn away for a moment to compose himself and calm down his furiously beating heart before his face turned even redder.

"... What are you doing here?" Genda just shrugged, carrying on with the recent order with his usual smile, completely oblivious to the girl's faint blush as she picked her coffee and left in a rush.

"What does it look like? I'm working." Sakuma's eye just narrowed.

"I can see that- why here though?" And then Genda smiled, way too bright and genuine for anyone's good- especially tired and cranky employees. Sakuma would forever deny the sudden blush creeping on his face. It was nothing, really.

"Why not? They were hiring. Besides, you looked like you needed a better company than Fudou." Sakuma swore that for a split second Genda's smile looked a lot more mischievous than usual. He might never know for sure, but he could swear it was there, really. Well, not like he could really do anything about it if he was really hired.

The rest of the day was surprisingly peaceful, even when Fudou inevitably came in to ruin everyone's day, Genda managing to handle him with his never ending patience. Sakuma definitely hadn't been sneaking glances at him whenever he could with that dumb and definitely not love-struck look of his.

Maybe work wouldn't be so bad after all.


End file.
